david: this is my kitchen table and also my filing system. over much of the past three

decades i have been an investor. highest calling of mankind i've often thought is private equity. and then i started interviewing. i watched your interviews so i know how to do some interviewing. i learned how leaders i get to the top. >> i asked him how much he wanted. i said fine. i did no due diligence. david: and how they stay there. you don't feel inadequate being only the second wealthiest man in the world. is that right? i am here with sheikh hamad bin jassim bin jaber al thani who is the former prime minister of qatar. thank you for having us here. hamad: pleasure, david. david: for 20 years you were the foreign minister of tar and for another six plus years you were simultaneously the prime minister. is it a pleasant situation or you don't have to worry about all those problems anymore or did you love those jobs so much you wish you had them again? hamad: wish them again.

history does not go back. the second thing is i think every part of your life has if you know how to use it you will be excited in it. i used my life from the beginning when i was jr. in the governments until i become minister and minister of foreign affairs, prime minister, deputy prime minister. it took me a journey of 30 years of working in the government. 52 years actually. i think and i believe that is more than enough. i believe now i have a new chapter. i don't believe in retirement. but i believe every age, every time of your life there is something you can do and you can do it at value in your life and

around you. david: now you are spending a lot of time with your investment activities which are extensive around the world. hamad: i am doing that and i have my own charity. i am pleased with it. i built it since my father died. i think that is also for me is a very important part of my function or my life daily. especially with all the situation around us now in syria and turkey and you see this tragedy in other places. it gives me pleasure to work on that and to do with my team. yes, i am doing business all over the world. this is not only to do business but as i told you to be a fellow which can add value for yourself and your family. david: let's talk about when you

are prime minister and foreign minister were also the chairman of the qatar investment authority. that can keep you pretty busy with all those jobs. as the head of qatar investment authority you made some large investments for qatar. one of them is harrods, the department store in london. the fema shard building in london. investments enables lichen and barclays. those investments seem to have worked out ok. how do you manage being the foreign minister, the prime minister and the head of qi a at the same time? doesn't that take a lot of time? hamad: it was tough for me because i was with no weekend. i was working sincerely more than what i should do. if it is a candle it would've been burned now completely. even on my vacation i was working and meeting people. you know me. we meet and my holiday and wish

each other and weak discuss business picked -- we discussed business. it was tough but it was a challenge because at that time we started q ia with no money literally. we started with nothing aiming and that the gas will give us flow of money so we started with loans actually. most of this transaction has been done by loans from the banks. and thanks god the plan work. we get good revenue from the oil and gas. we have very little oil. that revenue went to the investment authority. david: as we talk today, it has been rumored in the press qia is looking to buy a very favorite english soccer team called manchester united so i don't know whether it will happen. are you surprised the interest

in the middle east about the english premier soccer league? many countries seem to have investors that own teams. are you a big football fan yourself? hamad: you know i am not football fan. we talked about this a few times. for me i don't believe or i don't like this investment. some of my sons like this. they always discuss with me why we don't invest in these things. they are about pushing hard. for me i thought this is not my specialty let me put it like this. i am an investor. as an investment i will think about it but if not i will not look at it as something just for an advertisement. i am not in that category. david: the world cup was an

investment by your country and attracting people here. liens of people came. was that you think a good investment or not clear yet? hamad: you know me. i am always frank. if it was my choice, it would not be done at that time. when i was in the government, prime minister and this idea come by his highness and his crown prince at that time, they know that i am against that idea because i think there is a lot of money and investment will be spent we can spend on something else and it will be good for the people and the country. but if you ask me now i will tell you there was a lot of outcome. positive outcome out of this. look at the people that visit qatar. i know most of them are from the business communities. they are active all over the world. they came some of them first time and they are coming again. they are bringing their families.

start working that people are saying there is place. we did not see it. it is a good place. the outcome of that tournament was positive from different way. good organized. well organized. despite all the noise, negative noise last 10 years which we hear about it. the outcome when we said no alcohol or the government decide no alcohol, people are thinking that is good. i can take my child. my girl can go along. nobody can talk to her. there is no one incident happened. organization was excellent. i think this is the first and the last one where you can see the matches in the same day and you don't miss any matches because of how close it is to it what -- it is. it is unique. the outcome was good.

♪

david: let's talk about your country for a moment. the country is a very wealthy country. maybe the wealthiest country in the world per capita. what is the wealth of the country come from? hamad: the wealth of the country as you know came from oil and gas and mainly gas now. i think this is -- we cannot say we contribute a lot. we contribute to take it out. doing the right decision with the right partner. that is i don't think that is innovation. when you see how you get your wealth, if you are a country without any resources and you do well like switzerland, like japan, these countries have no

resources and right now there gdp is high and they are doing very well. but for us the challenge will be with all this wealth what you are going to do with this wealth. how we can preserve it for the future. that is the challenge. david: when you were growing up this was not an extremely wealthy city, country. hamad: it was not wealthy city definitely. it was moderate. that time if you compare the 10 countries, rich countries, it is very strange. in the 1950's or 1960's, one is then -- one of them is lebanon and egypt. we see how things change. david: when i first came here with 30 years ago there was only one building that was more than four or five stories. hamad: that is true. david: now doha looks like manhattan except it is warm modern in many ways. the setting example of what you can do with the wealth if you

deploy it appropriately. all of these buildings, who is occupying these buildings? are these local people? are they oil companies? hamad: i think it is the same when you go to new york and you find oversupply in office and commercial. i think we have oversupply now in the market. this was a good business for everybody. everybody was goading either office or residential -- was building either office or residential retail aiming it would be printed by one of the companies because there was and still there is lots of work. now i think the people have to study what is surplus and i think we have surplus offices in the retail. not maybe the residents. it needed carefully for any investors to make his own calculation. i think now we are in oversupply

and we have surplus which the effects start to be felt in the financial market. david: when you were foreign minister you were jetting around the world a fair bit trying to solve a lot of problems and you did solve a number of them. one that has not yet been resolved as the one you have worked on a lot. the palestinian issue. you have a very close relationship with many of the palestinian leaders. do you see any way in your lifetime or my lifetime there will be a resolution of that issue? hamad: my dream is to see this solved and the palestinians live with the israelis in peaceful country because both of them, they are talented people. palestinian and the jew, they are talented people. one day i told them a joke. if they come together we be scared of them in my opinion.

when? that needs leadership in both sides to it is not leadership in america to push them. we need a leader or facilitator for that. and arabs to be part of this. it need two leaders and they are not there at the moment from the palestinian side and from the israeli side. from the palestinian side maybe mazen he did what he did. i don't want to evaluate the guy. he is a friend and i know him. but i think we need to see new leadership which have commitment from the palestinian side. i don't believe to solve the problem, i think -- i'm sorry to say this word.

i think this is childish. because we are talking about normalization. we have no problems with the israelis to normalize the situation. we talk with the israelis daily in my office. even when we shut the office we were talking to them from the intelligence to the foreign ministers to prime minister. and we can talk to them. to build a new idea with no vision or no target, peace target, not just to talk, it is too early to do all this unless you have a plan what to do. what i am worried is in 10 years if there is nothing happened or maybe before that we find ourselves in and other

anti-fossa -- david: the abraham accords have not been signed by qatar yet or maybe they will not. you say that is not likely because you say that is not going to solve the problems that are important. hamad: maybe our government will sign it one day. i don't know it on the part of the government. in my opinion i think this is -- tell me what we will gain from this. a relationship? we have a relationship. everybody has a relationship with the israelis. all these countries they have a relationship with israel. we don't need that. we need all of us to talk to the israelis and tell them we will do normalized business. we will do embassies like in the arab plan which king abdullah say. even better than that. let us sit and try to find a solution on the ground. david: many people in the west

were surprised when there was a spewed between saudi arabia and uae and qatar a few years ago. it is now resolved. the essence of that dispute was never that clear to people but you think that is now way behind the countries and that is not going to come back again? hamad: it is way behind. come back or not come back i don't know but i wish not. i think everybody learned part of that conflict and learned where is the red line for each country. they know our red line. we know there red line. i think that is important to know. what is good now is there is a good momentum. i want this momentum to be reflective in the gcc. the gcc is dead. since 12, 13, even when i was a foreign minister, the gcc was dead last 12, 13 years. we only use the gcc when there

is a military crisis or we need to make a decision. you ask us to take a decision in the region and need to be under the name of the gcc. i want the gcc to be more affected in the life of the people so they feel they have benefit from this unity between the gcc. the gcc is not there. david: are you worried about iran '; are worried about iran but iran was somewhat faithful to you when you had your dispute with saudi arabia. as i ran not as big a concern for you as saudi arabia? hamad: the first fear for me is not iran. the first fear is us under the region. how we behave. i mean the leader. i'm not one of them. i think if we can control our happiness and our frustration and when we are angry to put it

as a statement in box and say ok, we work. we have some difference with x country or that. this has to be discussed in a civilized way. and also to look ok, if we have challenges and if we agree iran is our first enemy, how we can deal with this matter. are we going to deal with it through direct negotiation? through war which nobody want war because that is not in our benefit. the problem that this decision is not with us because we are not in the position at the moment because of what i said about the gcc. take that leadership for us and say we have a problem with iran, we sit with it and discuss it frankly and reach a solution because i believe we should

leave the gulf area in harmony between iran, iraq and the gcc countries. if we can do that, i think this is a big achievement not only for the piece, the trade, the business, the economy. they have over 100 million people. iraq have like 40 million people. we have like 50 million people. we are talking about 200, 200 50 million people. which country with oil. imagine -- rich country with oil. imagine what we can do. david: was it hard to give up that much power? hamad: if somebody go and take me back i don't want to do what i was doing. it is done. it is enough. ♪ david: when you were foreign minister for 20 years or so, you dealt with a lot of great

leaders i assume around the world. where there one or two memorable to you what you said this person is an extra ordinary leader and i really learned a lot from that person? hamad:hamad: there are many leaders i met in my life from japan, china, united states. i see all of them. i saw all the head of state of all of them. to have persons -- there are a few guys which i met and either you are impressed by how they are clever or how they can manage. i want to put it in a manage position. i think one of them is the king of saudi arabia. he can manage the situation internally and externally in a way, good. i agree with all his policies? no. he does not also agree with all of our policies but i think he is one of the leaders. the leader which i respect for

his country or what he is doing in terms of our five and how he handled the situation with israeli, that is almost like a movie. a series of movies how he dealt with every problem with the israelis because i was part of that with him and how he maneuvered through the things. i don't agree with all he do but the king of morocco, also a guy i respect a lot as a leader in the air world -- the arab world. ♪ david: in the united states you met with a number of president. i guess president clinton. hamad: george bush the father

until i know biden and i know even trump so i know all of them. david: did you ever have a hard time getting to see a u.s. president? hamad: it depends. sometimes if they are upset with us it is hard. if they are not upset i see them in the white house. that happens when al jazeera as part of the problem. the best relationship we had at that time was president clinton and he is a great guy. how we can manage situation. david: when you were foreign minister and prime minister i sometimes would come to talk to you about investment matters. i would see other well-known investors. hamad: before i am prime minister and before i was foreign investment we was doing private as a private client with you. david: that is right.

how do you juggle -- you have a prime minister coming to see you , a foreign minister, an investment person. you have to change your brain for all these people coming in. you must be working seven days a week to do all that. hamad: for me it was tough. but i was used to work for long hours. in the end, last two years i felt inside that i hate the job. i just want to leave. this is maybe i say it late in some programs but two years before we left together that i want to leave. david: you and the mere retired at more or less the same time. very often it is hard to give up power voluntarily. people lose elections but here they don't have elections.

you voluntarily decided to step back from that position. was it hard to give up that much power and you are happier now than you were then? hamad: i am happier definitely. this is sincere of somebody who go and take me back, i don't want to do what i was doing. it is done. it is enough. i did what i did. right, wrong, i did it. i think i did more right things than wrong things. but also, i did things in the space of time, very short time. i did a lot of things. achievement. i think which i am happy. for me, the world now so slow any decision i will not be part. i cannot see myself to go and do that. david: if somebody is watching and they say i don't know much about qatar, what would you say you want people to know about your country? hamad: i think our culture is something that needs to be seen. people, what they know about us,

they know oil and gas. or they know about -- we are also happy about the gas. they have to see this guy which on the camel and the oil and gas. is he capable? did he do well with what he has? that is the proof you can see in front of you. david: incredible career in business, investments, diplomacy, what would you like your legacy to be or is your legacy going to be your children? hamad: first i went to be seen as a human being. i'm proud of this country. my country. more than what anybody think. i am so attached. i'm traveling a lot now but i am attached to this thing so i am proud. one of my legacy is my charity which i am building it very rapidly. that is something i need to

leave for my children. the third thing is i need my children to work together and that it's very difficult. i need to set an example for the families in qatar and other regions how the children despite their different education, different ideas, how they can work together as one unity. that is a big challenge for me. ♪ we're outlawing golf. wait. can i still play? since we work with emower, we don't have to worry about planning for a third kid. you can still play golf... sometimes. take control of your financial future to empower what's next. we all have a purpose in life - a “why.” no matter your purpose, at pnc private bank we will work with you every step of the way to help you achieve it. so let us focus on the how. just tell us - what's your why?

i screwed up. so let us focus on the how. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck.

haslinda: patient, resilient, persistent. anwar ibrahim's rise to the pinnacle of malaysian politics is the story of a man who waited decades. anwar was first identified as the future prime minister more than 25 years ago, but fell from